Local Kitchens In Lafayette Cooks Up 5 Virtual Restaurants

LAMORINDA, CA — Ghost kitchens were quietly growing in popularity before the coronavirus pandemic struck, but now they are embraced as a model for the future. Lafayette has one of the first: Local Kitchens, a vanguard in the movement.

It's expensive to run a restaurant. There's the high cost of real estate and furnishing a dining room, coupled with the cost of personnel such as servers, bussers and hosts.

The pandemic forced real restaurants to close, and homebound people sick of rustling up their own meals drove the popularity of meal delivery services.

The popularity of restaurant delivery services such as DoorDash and Uber Eats over the last few years compelled cooks to open "ghost kitchens" in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. The premise is simple: Rent space in a commercial kitchen with other cooks, advertise your virtual "restaurant" on food delivery apps, and you're in business with very little overhead.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs saw an opportunity. Former DoorDash leaders created Local Kitchens last year, seeing the opportunity to spread the concept of ghost kitchens beyond big cities. Local Kitchens prefers the term "digital kitchens" and has three such operations up and running in the Bay Area, including in Lafayette.

Customers can order Filipino street food from Senor Sisig, chicken sandwiches and salads from Proposition Chicken, gourmet salads from MIXT, brunch items from Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen and, new to the lineup, Indian street food from Curry Up Now.

Curry Up Now is a restaurant chain that began right here in the Bay Area.

"With such strong roots in the Bay Area, we are thrilled to expand our reach and offer a convenient way for more people to connect with our food," said Akash Kapoor, co-founder and CEO of Curry Up Now. "Lafayette is a great community with a strong foodie culture, and this collaboration with Local Kitchens helps us expand ‘through the tunnel’ to serve more families and diners where they live, work and play."

Curry Up Now started as a single food truck on the Peninsula and is now the nation’s largest and fastest-growing Indian fast-casual restaurant chain. Its willingness to innovate caught the attention of Local Kitchens.

"In addition to being a beloved Bay Area food brand, Curry Up Now has been consistently ahead of the curve on the future of the restaurant industry," said Jon Goldsmith, founder and CEO of Local Kitchens.

"In fact, I became familiar with Curry Up Now doing deliveries for its Palo Alto store as a DoorDash employee in 2013, when they were one of the earliest adopters of delivery," Goldsmith said. "Flash forward, and we’re now able to expand the brand’s reach through Local Kitchens and bring Curry Up Now’s amazing Indian street food favorites to a broader audience."

Local Kitchens offers in-person ordering at a kiosk at 3455 Mount Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette.

Or you can order online.

• Curry Up Now.
• MIXT.
• Proposition Chicken.
• Senor Sisig.
• Wise Sons Deli.

Love a deal? Curry Up Now is offering $5 off your first order when you download the Curry Up Now app and sign up for the rewards program.

As for Local Kitchens, the company plans to expand rapidly. Keep an eye on the Lafayette Local Kitchens website to see when new restaurants are added.